What are some opinions on "Wall-O-Water"s? r

yes, there are tomatoes in them. the WOW sides are just a couple to few inches apart. plants are indeterminates pruned to single stem. we have short growing seasons with cool nights, not many hot days, plus a hailstorm or two. so the plants don't really get big and crowded even when they're that close.

--meg

[matilda'skid]

I have more seeds than space, but last year I planted too close and had a jungle. I have never tried pruning. Thanks

[Quickstrike]

Originally Posted by akeimou

i'm a WOWer. i can take advantage of a warm spell in spring, plant some tomatoes, set up WOWs, and then basically forget about them. no worries about that last blizzard we usually have late in May.

So, do you normally plant your tomatoes outside in early May?

Around what time do you like to sow the seeds?

This will be my first time starting from seed. I usually just buy seedlings in June from a Garden Centre.



Thanks for the help.

hey, Quickstrike, good to see another Calgarian!

i sow seeds indoors middle of March. i take seedlings to the greenhouse middle of April, keeping temps above freezing, and shading from direct sun the first day or two. then i plant some in containers, and in early May i plant the rest outside.

hth,

--meg

[Indyartist]

I've come up with the varieties I'll try in my "Wall-O-Water"s. It looks like I'll only have nine to try this year so I have picked nine different varieties to try. I will also start these same nine varieties in the standard fashion and then compare the results. Here are the nine I'm going to try:
Cherokee Purple
Ceylon
Aunt Gertie's Gold
Black Zebra
Arbuznyi
Lime Green Salad
Azoychka
Black Cherry
I'm starting the seeds tonight with the "wet paper towel in a baggie method" and will transplant the germinated results into Jiffy peat pots under lights A.S.A.P. I've never tried starting tomatoes germinated in this fashion but I hope I am successful.
My WOW trial will not be pushing the "early" envelope too much but this is the earliest I have been able to achieve. I still have a fairly monumental task of getting my garden ready given my long 56+ hours per week job plus helping my wife in her second battle with cancer. Tomatoes are a wonderfully innocent relief from the other pressures though.

[Indyartist]

I now have my WOW's up and filled. Our frost free date here in 5b NE Indiana is mid-May. My plan was to plant 9 plants in my 9 WOW's around mid-April or 4 to 5 weeks before the frost free date. The WOW packages say 6 to 8 weeks early but I thought I would try 4 to 5 weeks early first and see how that went. Here is where I might not have understood the concept, I assumed to put out the plants 4 weeks early meant to start my seeds 4 to 5 weeks early. The plants I started were transplanted to three inch pots on 2/16 which makes them around 8 weeks old on 4/3 which is close to 7 weeks early. The plants I started are doing VERY well, they are 8 different varieties with some now being 12 inches tall with some also having around a 12 inch spread.
The question is, should the plants started in WOW's be 8 weeks old and as large as mine or should the plants put out side early be much younger plants, perhaps 4 to six weeks old?
I may rush the plants out this Sunday as the weather is supposed to turn warmer. As I'm writing this it is 9pm and 34 degrees outside with the next few days with highs in the 40's. The WOW instructions say have them up a week in advance but Sunday is supposed to be in the low 50's and I could throw my victims out then. The WOW instructions also say to leave them around the plant for 30 days past the frost free date but I cannot imagine the plants being small enough to safely remove the WOW's in the middle of June.

[Tom C zone 4/5]

Originally Posted by Indyartist

I've found my local, small town hardware store has "wall-o-water" s on the shelf.><8 snip 8>< Does this product really give you a 4 to 6 week head start like it advertises? Al

Sort of. Any kind of cloche will protect a plant to a degree. Tomato sits and loafs when temperature runs between 40° and 60°. A cloche will help keep any plant above frost. Think in the neighborhood of 10° above ambient temperature.

So if your daily highs are likely to be hovering in the fifties (and night time lows in the twenties). Any kind of cloche will not hold enough heat to make a fundamental difference.

The short of my sermon is: a cloche might keep your tomato plant(s) alive, but it aint gonna make it June.

[matilda'skid]

A wall of water is not the same as a cloche because the heat capacity of water makes it hold the heat. I tried to push the wall of water too far this year because of cabin fever in Feb. when I planted way too early. It hasn't worked this year because it has been cold and no sun for a week. If there is sun they warm in the day and hold the heat for longer than just a glass cloche. I think next year I will wait and use them a few weeks later. Indy Artist I think 30 days past the average last frost is too long and that it would be hard to get them off. If your plants are too big when you plant, snip off some lower leaves and plant them sideways. Put the WOW over the plant sticking up and mulch around the sides.

[Tom C zone 4/5]

Originally Posted by matilda'skid

A wall of water is not the same as a cloche because the heat capacity of water makes it hold the heat. I tried to push the wall of water too far this year because of cabin fever in Feb. when I planted way too early. It hasn't worked this year because it has been cold and no sun for a week.

Over the years I got suckered into WoW once, and was gifted with them for a second trial some years later. Based solely on side-by-side trials of both WOW and the classic 'polish bucket'-cloche. For me there was utterly NO difference in frost protection or increase in growth.

Please go back and re-read your last sentence. the added underline was done by me.

[matilda'skid]

But it did work very well last year and the year before. I shouldn't plant here until after the first week in May and I will beat that for sure because I have many more plants in my basement. I have about 10 planted out but as soon as I get a good forecast more will go in the ground and I will have tomatoes a few weeks earlier than if I had waited. People get different things out of gardening and planting tomato seeds and playing with tomatoes in my basement during the Feb. big snow is better than drugs. I know I planted too early this year; it was an experiment. We usually have some nice weather in April and it will be here soon. I'll be planting then.

[austinnhanasmom]

My planting date is also mid-May and as long as the sun is out when I set up the WOWs, usually mid-March planting with WOWs, I get ripe fruit in June.

I am a WOWer and complete believer.

Before WOWs, I would plant in mid-May and rarely achieve ripe tomatoes. Now, I have more fruits then I can process and eat fresh.

[Indyartist]

I put out nine plants in the WOWs tonight. It is April 3rd and my last frost free date here in Indiana 5b is mid-May, so they are out about 6 weeks early. Here is a link to planting pictures.
https://picasaweb.google.com/hopkins...eat=directlink

[saltmarsh]

My neighbor used WOW this year and they worked fine. A couple of mornings the WOWs had ice in the top, but the tomatoes were unharmed. Week before last he removed the WOW because the plants were getting too big. They were blooming and ready to set fruit. Then the voles gnawed the stems off even with the ground. I made some vole traps and gave them to him so he can replant. Such is life.

[JLJ_]

Originally Posted by saltmarsh

Week before last he removed the WOW because the plants were getting too big. They were blooming and ready to set fruit. Then the voles gnawed the stems off even with the ground.

Planting inside a 3 liter clear plastic water bottle, with top and bottom cut out (so it is a clear cylinder), set perhaps three or four inches deep, helps protect young plants and discourages vile voles. They *can* dig under, but my experience has been that they are much less likely to do so, and fewer things get bitten off at ground level, with the bottles in place. Never tried it in combination with WOW, but it could probably be done. The bottles can stay in place through the season, and if you hand water regularly, or just for feeding purposes, it makes it easier to direct what you pour to the plant you want to receive it.

[jwr6404]

I plant outside in pots around mid April. I have larger pots and use the WoWs. They're a winner here in the PNW. OT: Indiartist how far from Muncie Indiana are you located? I was born and raised in Muncie.